- In October, you received the Cape Circe international award in the Architecture and Art category. But after all, a personal exhibition at the Pushkin Museum. A. S. Pushkin, which opens on December 17, has nothing to do with this?
- Receiving the award was a complete surprise for me - I learned about it from the organizers a week before the presentation. And the exhibition in the Pushkin Museum required six months of preparation. So it's just a coincidence, albeit a joyful one.
In general, before you received this award, did you hear anything about it?
- Now I remember what I heard, but in relation to politicians - once it was received, for example, by Vladimir Vladimirovich and the Italian Prime Minister. But I had no idea that they also have artistic and cultural nominations.
It is interesting that in Russian press releases your nomination is listed as “Architecture and Art”, and in the Italian version it is “Modern Architecture and Ancient History”
- Well, I personally like both versions and both are suitable.
Why do you think you received this award now? What was the trigger?
- It's hard to say - I did not perform any special actions and was not nominated. But for me it is, of course, an honor. As I understand it, those who hold the unity of the European cultural space become the laureates of the award. I cannot attribute such lofty words to myself, but all my life I have been studying antiquity, mentally I rely on it in everything. And our country not only belongs to Europe, but geographically makes up a fairly large part of it - and cultural, no doubt, too. So it turns out that my activity "maintaining unity" is quite conducive.
So, after all, the Italian formulation is more accurate and closer?
- Yes, probably.
Do you know other architects who received "Cape Circe"?
- I don’t remember architects, but I was impressed that Wim Wenders [a famous film director from Germany - approx. ed.]. An extremely positive result was the acquaintance with our former Minister of Culture Alexander Avdeev, who is now the plenipotentiary ambassador of Russia to the Vatican. He was always very sympathetic to me, and in person, he turned out to be a really very pleasant, intelligent person.
Let's get back to your exhibition. How is it fundamentally different from the previous ones?
“There weren't that many of them. I participated in the exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery "Only Italy" in 2013 and in the exhibition of the same name in Rome at the National Museum of Graphics in 2016. And of the personal exhibitions, it seems, there was only one, but very strong - in the Museum of Architecture, even under the late David Sargsyan in 2008. 60 drawings, about 200 photographs - we occupied the whole Anfilade. By that time, I had just made a number of trips to North Africa and the Middle East - to those places that will now be inaccessible for many years due to the political situation. In Pushkin, I will show, for example, a drawing of a Greek temple on the territory of Libya - it is hardly possible to see it live now. By the way, my next big exhibition will be in Rome again, at the end of 2017.
Why is the exhibition in Pushkin - "Roman Time"? Nostalgia for the past or a hint that "Roman time" has not yet passed and continues to this day?
- Since I often paint antiquity, the exhibition mainly contains drawings from different years dedicated to the architecture of the Roman Empire. True, Greece, too, and some remote provinces, but all this, let's say, are buildings and fragments of classical antiquity that have come down to us. Geography is different, but according to our concepts, the era is one - therefore "time". Although there are drawings selected for the exhibition because the main character in them is today's Rome. And on them, as you might guess, not only antiquity - they more holistically show the modern context of this unique and very beloved city by me. So the word "Roman" appears in two forms.
For what period were the works written?
- The earliest is almost 1991, and the latest was completed a week ago. It turns out a cut in a quarter of a century - if you wish, you can trace how my style and ideas as an artist have changed over time, if someone is curious about it. Or you can just look into a specially released wonderful catalog. Even apart from the exhibition, it turned out to be a very interesting publication: it contains three serious introductory texts and a scientific article.
Who was the author?
- The introductory texts were written by three different people. The first is Natalya Vedeneeva, head of the graphics department of the Pushkin Museum and curator of my exhibition. Taking advantage of my acquaintance and friendly disposition, I asked the second text to write to Arkady Ippolitov, a remarkable art critic and curator from the Hermitage. And about a year ago, through facebook, I met an archaeologist from Greece, Katerina Liaku. Then we met in person, and she also wrote the introductory text. And - that very scientific article: about how architecture was portrayed in antiquity - as seen by contemporaries. It's very interesting!
When you are busy - when do you have time to draw? How often do you do it?
- At least once a month. This usually happens during lecture travel or scientific research. I can also go on purpose. Thank God, by my age I have earned a certain freedom of action and can afford to periodically get on a plane, fly to Rome and draw there for three days.
When you made your first drawing - remember?
- I think about a year and a half - like all children. There has always been a need to paint. After all, drawing is such a very important synthetic type of human activity, which simultaneously loads the eyesight, the hand, and the head, and allows you to master the surrounding reality in a particularly intense way. I am constantly drawing and have a poor idea of how I would live if I did not have such an opportunity. Even during the exhibition I will draw - not all three months, of course, but I will also become an “exhibit”. There will be a performance in the best traditions of contemporary art - an artist painting the Greek courtyard in the Greek Hall.
What architectural structure did you draw first?
- Apparently, it happened during the educational process. When in Ryazan, where I was born, I entered a children's art school, and in the very first summer we were taken to paint from nature in watercolors from the Ryazan Kremlin of the 17th century. There is a magnificent cathedral too.
By the way, why did you study architecture at the Academy of Arts? Ryazan is closer to Moscow and Moscow Architectural Institute than to St. Petersburg …
- The Russian architectural school has two main branches: one "grew" in the Academy of Arts, the second comes from the Bauhaus and VKHUTEMAS - this is just the Moscow Architectural Institute. And the second option, as practice has confirmed, is not close to me. Despite the fact that MARCHI is a wonderful university, and I treat it with great respect. But the choice in favor of studying at the Academy of Arts was unequivocal. In the first year, however, I did not enter: I was 17, I was poorly prepared and received a "two" for one of the examinations in drawing. Parents said: do not waste a year, go to LISI - the former Leningrad Civil Engineering Institute, which is now called GASU (University of Architecture and Civil Engineering). It, in turn, was formed from the Institute of Civil Engineers, which existed in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the last century. The first month I even attended classes there - but it didn't work. I decided that it would be better to spend this year on preparation and still go to the Academy. And so it happened. And so I have been there since 1983 - since then I have not actually left. At first he studied for a long time, 11 years (including the army and academic leave), then he began to teach.
How did you first get to Rome? Surely you have vivid memories of this visit
- And how! This was after graduation from the Academy, I am 29, and through the efforts of the current rector Semyon Mikhailovsky (and then a young teacher) I was sent to the Prince Charles Summer School of Architecture. The first part takes place in Italy, and the second - in Biarritz in France. And just imagine: in 1995, a person - as receptive and greedy for impressions as I am - is put on a plane in Russia (and then life was still very different from the European one) - and landed right in Rome. The impression is fantastic!
I will tell you a story from that trip that I told Ippolitov, and he presented in the catalog for my exhibition. The wonderful English historian of architecture, Mark Wilson Jones, took us around Rome and showed us all these Baroque palaces. And suddenly - we pass through narrow lanes to the square, and I see a building with which, I immediately understand, something is wrong. Before me stands a huge Corinthian colonnade, partly protruding from the wall. And it seems to be similar to what I have already seen, but it smells of such antiquity that I see traces of geological processes appear on the stone. Something completely inexpressible!
It was the first antique building that I saw alive - as I now know, the side façade of the temple of the divine Andrian, built in the 2nd century, built into the wall of the papal customs. This year I finally drew it, and this drawing will take pride of place at the exhibition.
Is your love for Rome, for Roman antiquity reflected in your architecture?
- They say yes. And I'm not even influenced by antiquity - I just use this language and expressive means to solve completely different, modern problems. Very often, one on top of the other fits well. I have never attempted to create some kind of "ancient" structure - this is a dead-end path. But to think compositionally as the masters did in antiquity - with their materials and tasks - this seems to me interesting, and this is how I try to do it.
In that case, have you drawn your own architecture - already built from nature - at least once? "City of Embankments", "Solar System"?
- There are no complexes, but for my very good friend I built a house in Feodosia. And one day, while visiting, he sat down and drew it. To be honest, it was a strange experience. The result is normal, but the feeling itself can probably be compared to how an artist paints a self-portrait.
How do you determine - what is worthy of a pencil, and what is enough for a camera lens?
- Since I also shoot (some people think that it is not mediocre), I have no attempts to build a hierarchy. A camera lens and a pencil solve completely different tasks. Drawing is a lot of research work when you transfer an image over your head onto paper. And it is impossible to assess in advance what is worthy of being drawn. Rather, they are forced to start drawing some kind of motive, or a general view, or an angle. Moreover, if in architectural photographs people often interfere, and I want to catch the moment when they are not in the frame (and I even got the hang of it), then, on the contrary, I actively include people in the plots of the drawings. Completely modern and engaged in quite modern affairs - waving "selfie" sticks, for example. For me, this is a way to show different speeds of movement of the "time tape". The ancient building changes slowly. The houses around them are growing and falling at a faster pace. Well, people against this background live rapidly to the point of insanity. And this is also about the "Roman Time".
